Shilling
[citation needed] The Germanic root of the term Shilling, (s)kelH-, has been theorized to come from a foreign currency; most probably the Phoenician shekel.
[2][3] In origin, the word schilling designated the solidus of Late Antiquity, the gold coin that replaced the aureus in the 4th century.
[citation needed] In 796, Charlemagne passed a monetary reform, based on the Carolingian silver pound (about 406.5 grams).
[citation needed] In the 12th century, larger silver coins of multiple pfennig weight were minted, known as denarii grossi or groschen (groats).
In the late medieval period, states of the Holy Roman Empire began minting similar silver coins of multiple pfennig weight, some of them denominated as schilling.
The English shilling was a successor of the testoon coin first minted during the reign of Edward VI in 1551, which consisted of 92.5% "sterling" silver.
[citation needed] This set the weight of the shilling at 87.2727 grains or 5.655 grams from 1816 until 1990, when it was demonetised in favour of a new smaller 5p coin of the same value.
At decimalisation in 1971, the shilling coin was superseded by the new five-pence piece, which initially was of identical size and weight and had the same value.
It was worth 1/20 of an Irish pound, and was interchangeable at the same value to the British coin, which continued to be used in Northern Ireland.
Two shillings and sixpence (half a crown, or an eighth of a £) was written as '2/6', rarely as '2s 6d' ('d' being the abbreviation for denarius, a penny).
While the derivation of "bob" is uncertain, John Camden Hotten in his 1864 Slang Dictionary says the original version was "bobstick" and speculates that it may be connected with Sir Robert Walpole.
Each colony issued its own paper money, with pounds, shillings, and pence used as the standard units of account.
Shillings are described as the standard monetary unit throughout the autobiography of Solomon Northup (1853)[13] and mentioned several times in the Horatio Alger Jr. story Ragged Dick (1868).
[16] In Canada, £sd currencies were in use both during the French period (New France livre) and after the British conquest (Canadian pound).
Other parts of British North America decimalized shortly afterwards and Canadian confederation in 1867 passed control of currency to the federal government.
[17] Following the breakdown in central authority that accompanied the civil war, which began in the early 1990s, the value of the Somali shilling was disrupted.
Rival producers of the local currency, including autonomous regional entities such as the Somaliland territory, subsequently emerged.
Dollarization notwithstanding, the large issuance of the Somali shilling has increasingly fueled price hikes, especially for low value transactions.
This inflationary environment, however, is expected to come to an end as soon as the Central Bank assumes full control of monetary policy and replaces the presently circulating currency introduced by the private sector.
Although the authorities in Somaliland have attempted to bar usage of the Somali shilling, Somalia's official currency is still in circulation in some regions.
